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Player in the Pod - CJ Stander, A Munster & Irish Legend in the Making

Ahead of Ireland’s Tour to South Africa, Michael Cantillon sat down with CJ Stander for The Rugby Pod to discuss his stellar season and how he has won over the hearts of Irish & Munster supporters with his passion & play.

“I was massively proud to be in that moment. I was crying at several stages which is something you rarely see,” says CJ Stander of the day he made his Ireland debut back in February, chatting to me in a room far too big for two people at Limerick’s plush Plassey House.

What a season Stander has had.

Ireland’s player’s player and supporters’ player of the year recently picked up Munster’s player of the season award for the second year running, in addition to being named in the Pro12 Dream Team, once again, for the second consecutive year.



A campaign littered with individual achievements has not quite gone to plan from a team perspective however, as Stander candidly admits when I meet him following the premature end of Munster’s season.

“On a personal level, it’s been one of the best years of my career. You work hard for what you want to do and accomplish but it’s been unbelievable.

“From a Munster perspective it’s been a rollercoaster because I’ve been getting awards but I was captain of a team that was struggling; the first team to lose at home to Connacht in 29 years and I was the captain of that team, so at stages when I was at a high it brought me down to, not rock bottom, but very quickly down to earth.”

A deeply frustrating season for Munster ended in a sixth placed finish in the Pro12, missing out on the playoffs and just about qualifying for next year’s Champions Cup.

For the second campaign in a row Munster also failed to progress out of the pool stages in Europe; a far cry from the ten year anniversary celebrated just last week of their first European Cup triumph against Biarritz.

The Province have acted swiftly in bringing in Johan ‘Rassie’ Erasmus, prising him away from the Springbok coaching set-up amid the general carnage and wrangling in existence within the SARU over the issue of ‘transformation’ and quotas in South African rugby.

The appointment is a coup for Munster with a feeling of general dismay prevailing in South Africa at losing their highly-rated general manager of high performance, and it’s a move Stander hopes can work in Munster’s favour.

“Rassie’s definitely going to bring a bit of change. He’s going to bring a different type of game-plan and I think he’s bringing a defence coach, which will be good.

“He’s the type of guy that is very clinical in what he does. He’s very detailed and he’s always got something up his sleeve.

“He was a technical advisor in 2007 for the Springboks [World Cup champions no less], and so he looks at teams and works out what the plan is, and that will make a big difference.”

Stander has a connection with the Munster faithful few are afforded. The consistency and quality of his workaholic performances mean that he is adored. When he speaks, he is heard. As such, I ask him what he thinks Munster need to do to return to the glory days. His answer touches on the fact that the Province will finally be moving to one general centre from the start of next season, instead of having players separated between Cork and Limerick.

“I think just getting into one centre is going to make a massive difference. It will bring unity not just with players but families.

“We will now be able to go down to a coach and talk to him, not call him and arrange a meeting for two days later.

“Then we need to find a way, as simple as it sounds, to score tries and get points on the board because at stages this year we struggled to get consistency in the first place and then we also struggled to get tries and points to put pressure on the opposition team.

“When we played Stade Francais away they had 14 men for the whole of the second half and we still lost that match by 30 points. Then they flew over here and we gave them a massive hiding and that just comes down to consistency.”

That defeat in Paris was perhaps the low point in Munster’s campaign and has been called the worst performance in the Province’s history. Whilst that sort of result should never happen to a Munster team, is it really feasible that they can compete with the wealth of cash present and growing in French and English rugby? Stander is convinced it is.

“Other teams have money which drives them but what drives Munster here is hard-work, integrity and heart.

“People talk about money and budgets but the players and management we have here, I believe, can win stuff.”

Whilst he is acutely aware of the disappointment of Munster’s season, the dissatisfaction concerning Ireland’s third place finish in this year’s Six Nations is, understandably, not quite as keenly felt by Stander, who has had a year for Ireland filled with emotion, pride and praise.

“Just to play for the Irish jersey and Irish team, I was crying on the first trip down in the bus the whole way to the stadium just to see the support you get from people.

“From the people who serve you coffee at the restaurant to people waving through the windows. People driving the buses to the ones working with machinery all waving and supporting you on to the stadium. It’s something I experienced down in Munster, but this was on different level.

“From the team’s side, we started slow during the Six Nations and kick started towards the end but it was just too late.”

Stander made his debut for Ireland against Wales during the first week of the championship, where he could be seen singing Amhrán na bhFiann. There is genuine emotion in his voice when he talks about the feelings he felt that day.

“It’s difficult to put into words because my brain only came back to me about two hours after the match.

“I was crying that day and was just so proud to be on that level there with that group, standing there singing that anthem. I spotted my wife in the crowd for a few seconds and I was just proud to be in that fold.”

Stander had said previously that he wasn’t sure what his father’s reaction would be were he to line out for Ireland. With his debut coming to fruition, I ask what the reaction had been.

“We normally call each other five hours before the match and I talked to him, and it was the first time I’d ever heard him cry.

“He’s a tough man. There are people out there who think superman is alive, in my eyes my dad is superman. He’s just the toughest man, he works his arse off, and he was crying and he said to me: ‘I’m proud of you. You worked hard and I’ve supported you as a rugby player and I’ve seen how you’ve embraced Ireland.’

“After that, he rang me after every match and was delighted with it, but the big turning point for me was when he heard about the South African tour and he asked me for 100 tickets and to bring over Irish jerseys.

“I don’t know if I’m going to be able to get 100 tickets in my hand but I gave him my first capped jersey and he has it framed up on the mantel piece and that means a lot. This is someone who was the biggest Blue Bulls and South African supporter before. I couldn’t really ask for more.”

With the quirky nature of sport, the first major tour with Stander as an Irish player is back to South Africa this June. Standing arm-in-arm with the Irish players while the South African anthem is playing, what will be running through his head?

“You sing the South African anthem at school and it’s a thing that’s in you but I’ve adopted this country now and this team and that tune won’t even be in my head, it will be blocked out.

“I think it’s going to be one of the toughest matches I’m ever going to be involved in because it’s two good teams playing against each other and I have to look after myself.

“People have asked me if I think I’m going to be targeted but I don’t think that’s going to happen because they have to worry about 23 other guys.

“To play in front of my family and a guy like my granddad who has supported me from when I was not even walking yet to play rugby, it will be full of emotion.

“He said to me in June last year that if there’s a chance to see me playing in an Irish jersey he’s going to be there and to play in front of him would be unbelievable.



Unbelievable is a word Stander returns to again and again throughout the interview and there is a real sense that he is filled with a mixture of intense excitement, deep emotive passion and slight incredulousness at the position he now finds himself in and the response he has received from the Irish public.

“I was thinking about it the last few weeks after getting the Supporters vote for the IRUPA. I was thinking where did I get this connection with the fans?

“I remember in the beginning coming over and even though I was not really even playing, the fans were still supporting me. They were unbelievable. At some stages they kept me positive because I think I only played 6 or 7 games in my first year.

“They throw absolutely everything at the team: all their support, all their money, all their resources. From the beginning I had a great connection with them because I think they give this team that extra step.

“I can’t thank them enough and just want to give them something back and that’s where we have a connection.

“The Irish culture, if they embrace you and take you in, it’s something that can’t be put into words because everyone wants to help you.

“What I got was almost like a new lease of life to enjoy my rugby again and to play for something that means more than just a game.

“The people of Limerick and Munster have looked after me and my wife until now and hopefully into the future.”

Written by Michael Cantillon for The Rugby Pod - www.TheRugbyPod.com

Highlights from CJ Stander’s First Six Nations for Ireland